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Monday, August 10, 2015

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas - this book contains five novellas that should be treated as a prequel to The Throne of Glass series. First two novellas are ok. Third novella is a bit slow but ending definitely compensate patience. The last two are the best because of amount of action that take place there. It was nice to get to know Celaena a bit more and also read about her and Sam. I just wish I have read these novellas before the firsts two books in the series. Other than that, I have enjoyed the read.

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas - this is a third book in The Throne of Glass series. It is divided into two parts and we follow three separated stories. One of Celaena in Wendlyn land getting her training by Rowan. One taking place in the king's palace in Rifthold where we are following Chaol and prince Dorian. And one about Blackbeak witch Manon and other witches who have to learn how to fly wyverns. I liked two first books in this series but this one is better. The world is getting broader and reacher and there is some much more of adventure and action. We already know some of the characters but there are also very interesting new once introduced. It ends the way that I am grateful that the fourth book is coming out first on 1st of September 2015 (written on 10th August 2015) otherwise I would have to devote another bunch of hours to find out what is going to happen next ;)

The Embassy of Cambodia by Zadie Smith - it is a short novella about Fatou, domestic servant in London near The Embassy of Cambodia. Through small ordinary events we are getting to know hardship she ran away from and hardship she is having now. This book made me feel emotional and lucky. I highly recommend this story. It is a first book of Zadie Smith that I have read and I will definitely reach for her other stories.

Let's explore diabetes with owls by David Sedaris - it is a book consisting of short stories written by an American comedian. Some of the stories are really funny, some are disturbing, some are very provocative. I think the sense of humor is quite rude and it might not be everyones cup of cake. I could handle it most of the time but sometimes I really had to put it down and wait some time to continue reading. I've got intrigued enough that I consider reading another book by this author.

Movies

Ant-man - is awesome! Very funny, I laughed a lot and very well paced without being overloaded with action. There is a plot and I think overall it is a more rounded movie than other movies in the super-hero gender are as for example Avengers (although I am a big fan of them anyway). I think it could be enjoyed by broader group of audience. It is a bit like The Amazing Spider Man but not as dramatic as The Amazing Spider Man 2. It has a bit of National Treasure with Nicolas Cage vibe, anyway I highly recommend it.

Mission Impossible 5: Rogue Nation - has very good reviews so even that until now I haven't been so much into MI movies I went to see it. It is very good. Definitely the best MI movie until now. It is a filled with action lovely classical spy movie, so funny at moments that you will make you laugh out laud. Plot is interesting, car/motor racing is impressive and the female character Ilsa Faust is surprisingly very well made. She is pretty but her look is kept very natural, she is young (31) but not eighteen and she is quite convincing as an intelligent agent. I was pretty impressed when I read that Rebecca Ferguson that played Ilsa did actually all stunts herself what explains that she did look fit enough to be an agent. This movie left me in a very good mood and I have to say that I hope that Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames and Rebecca Ferguson will join Tom Cruise on his 6th Mission Impossible that was announced to start its production in 2016, because they did create a team comparable in "awesomeness" factor even to Avengers.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

With my husband we went to visit my friend from high school near London, England. Since I have been not once in London before we haven't done much of sightseeing except of a trip to Stonehenge and Cambridge.

I went to Japan for my honeymoon and it was amazing! :) I visited Kamikochi mountains, full of culture Kyoto, and breathtaking Tokyo. I hope to write some more about Japan in separate posts.

Books

Firefight by Brandon Sanderson - fantastic sequel to Steelheart. A bit slower in pace than Steelheart but every page is worth reading because of final "battle". Sanderson is amazing writer and he created very rich universe. In Firefight he is expanding the universe, introducing a lot of new characters and the only sad part is that the next book Calamity is coming in a year time, and trust me when you get to the end of Firefight a year to wait for more will seem like eternity.Your Fathers, where are they? and the Prophets, do they live forever? by Dave Eggers - I loved this book. It is a fast read, written only with dialogs. It is about desperate man searching answers about his country (US) in a very extraordinary way. Very tense, well paced book.

MoviesI watched a lot of movies this month. It was my holiday month, and I had two 11h long flights during which at least for me it is pretty hard to sleep. All in all, I feel a bit excused ;)

Far from the madding crowd - I haven't expected much from this movie but I actually think it was good. Soundtrack is very nice and pictures are beautiful. Story is interesting and I am really looking forward to read the book one day to get to know the characters a bit more. I find man-woman interactions from nineteenth century very interesting. The story is settled in the British countryside and follows a "relationship" of Gabriel Oak a young shepherd with a loan and leased farm and Bathsheba Everdene a proud beauty who arrives to live with her aunt. Gabriel falls in love with Bathsheba but when he makes her an unadorned offer of marriage, she refuses. When next they meet, their circumstances have changed drastically. An inexperienced new sheepdog drove Gabriel's flock over a cliff, and after settling all his debts he emerged penniless. On the other hand, Bathsheba has recently inherited her uncle's estate and is now wealthy...Ex machina - movie about survival and intelligence. Artificial Intelligence versus humans in a very basic set up of a house in a mountains. Very disturbing movie and that is why I loved it.Still Alice - beautiful story about alzheimer's disease. How it is when you define yourself through your intelligence and richness of your language skills and suddenly your memory do not work and you cannot express yourself anymore. From being one of most bright people an independent woman Alice becomes sloppy, forgetful, dependent on others. This movie is very touching.The signal - it is not too bad teenage movie. The idea is interesting and I guess it was shown as good as they could taking into account it is a low budget production. I liked the little mind games played in the movie. Anyway, movies about research mostly appeal to me.Epic - family movie, I liked it. It is a sweet story about civilization of little people that move much faster than we do therefore we cannot see them.Big Eyes - very interesting movie based on true story of a painter Margaret Keane. I liked it a lot.Mad Max - crazy, violet but really cool. I haven't seen the old one with Mel Gibson so I have no comparison. But this one is very entertaining and I liked it a lot. As far as I know it is a trilogy so there is at least two more movies to come in this anti-utopian universe.The Avengers: Age of Ultron - as always Avengers are very entertaining to watch. Movie is full of action, and the action movie type of sense of humor, that I personally really like.Tomorrowland - very inspiring Walt Disney movie. I loved it! The better world demands smart people that do not give up and want to make a difference. I thought it was uplifting but I guess one can also feel depressed afterwards. In the end, it is a movie about utopia.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Mitosis (1.5 in Reckoners series) by Brandon Sanderson - I loved this novella but it was way to short for my liking. Anyway, fight of humans against Epics started with Steelheart (1.0 in Reckoners series). This time David and Reckoners are fighting Mitosis, and eating Chicago hot-dogs. As in previous book there was action and good sense of humor. However, this book is just a teaser of what is going to happen in Firefight (2.0 in Reckoners series). The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion- very good and funny book. I would start first from Rosie Project which is very funny comedy about very calculated, organized and not emotionally driven guy that has to realize that he fallen in love. Rosie effect is a continuation of his relationship struggle but with new project BUD - baby under development. I recommend it to anyone who is expecting a baby, but I would especially recommend it to nerds like me who has no logical thinking problems but find social interactions challenging or unnecessary (to smaller or bigger extend) ;)

Movie

Duff - this movie is very overrated. It is funny enough but really not my cup of tea. But then again, maybe I am just too old ;)Is this really the only movie I saw this month?! I guess I had been busy with life stuff ;)

Life Event

Photo taken by tmx studio.

I've got married and I am having the best time of my life! I am infinitely happy! Wedding party went very well and guests seemed to have a lot of fun.

Travel

I have visited Poland since my wedding took place there. I have done a little road trip and train trip to see as much as possible with my guests. Before wedding we visited Gdansk the capital of amber, and the Malbork castle from year 1406.

Then we went to Szczecin where my wedding was organized. I haven't done much of sightseeing because I had to take care of my look. My nails, skin and so on needed a bit of extra care from specialist to assure that I will look my best during the wedding day ;)After celebration we took a night train to Krakow, which is beautiful city with a lot of monuments and history. I highly recommend following restaurants: Pod Aniolami, Wesele, and Starka (here you need to order some vodka shots because they have many different homemade flavors) food and atmosphere is just fantastic in those places. It wasn't my first time in Krakow but those restaurants are on my must visit list each time since I tried it last summer ;)

I have also gone to Auschwitz, and Birkenau (near Krakow) to reflect on human race. I think everyone should see it and understand how unacceptably cruel was what happened there. There is no words that can describe it. You walk around thinking how to describe and then it becomes obvious why one of the prisoners who survived invented a new word to describe it - holocaust. It was an important experience for me because when we discussed it during history lessons at school I think I was too young to understand it as something that really happened, that happened not so long ago. On cruelty in ancient times we can look as believe that humans have changed since then, but can we really claim it with something that happened 70 years ago?

Near Krakow there is also an old salt mine Wieliczka. The salt exploration on this territory started already 3000 years BC. At the turn of XII and XII centuries AC they began to drill deeper wells. It is a nice and very impressive place to visit. There is also a Saint Kinga's of Poland Chapel which is the worlds biggest underground temple. It is 101 meters (331 feet) below the surface.

Inspiration

Emmy Noether - I do not want to write a lot. I am just mentioning her because for some reason I have always assumed that a man invented the Noether’s theorem, which you
come across all the time in physics. I was wrong and the truth blew my mind. Emmy
was an extraordinary lady and I am so happy I got to know a bit about her and her mathematical contributions to science.

Video/Music

Started as a Baby by Jon Lajoie - this rap song made it very difficult for me to stay quiet in silent zone in train I was taking form Copenhagen to Odense. This is just too funny. But if you weren't a baby you wouldn't understand. Thus, it is only for those that started as a baby ;)